Fox buys sitcom based on Dogfish Head

Above: Sam Calagione (right) and Ken Marino at Dogfish Head’s Off-Centered Film Festival at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas last year. (Photo by Jack Plunkett)

The first time Dogfish Head had some major television exposure, it was for its short-lived 2010 documentary series “Brew Masters” on the Discovery Channel.

Next time, it could be the backdrop for a prime-time family sitcom on network TV with characters based on the real-life Dogfish founders, Sam and Mariah Calagione, and their two children, Sammy, 13, and Grier, 11.

Fox has purchased the show, which would star its co-creator, actor Ken Marino (“Party Down,” “The State”), a longtime friend of Sam Calagione who helped him paint the brewery’s flagship Rehoboth Beach brewpub before it first opened.

While Fox has first dibs on the show, it does not necessarily mean the show is definitely a go. It is in the very early stages of development, having only been pitched to Sony TV three months ago. Calagione says the project has not been gestating long. In fact, Calagione knew nothing of the pitch before it happened.

“[Marino] told me he pitched a few ideas and on a whim, he riffed on an idea based on my book and they liked it,” he says. “[Fox] is excited enough about it that they wanted an exclusive chance to develop it, as opposed to developing it and then selling it to a network.”

Above: Sam and Mariah Calagione working on the launch of Dogfish Head’s Bitches Brew.

If it does land on national television, it would tell the story of a couple, based on the life and business of the Calagiones, with a fictional brewery as the backdrop.

Sam Calagione’s 2011 book, “Brewing Up a Business,” detailing how Dogfish went from a small business to one of the most successful craft breweries in the country, will be used for base material for the series. Calagione is also on board as a story and technical consultant, already trading emails with Marino about possible plot lines ripped from real life at the Milton brewery.

“We don’t even know if it will be set in Delaware. We haven’t got that far,” says Calagione, who lives in Lewes.

Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva reported, “According to the producers, this is a show about a couple who are working on their American dream, a couple who support each other, inspire each other, are madly in love, drive each other crazy, build a company from the ground up and blend their employees and children into one big happy family.”

Marino, 44, is a founding member of the “The State,” the MTV sketch comedy series that aired in the early ’90s and developed a cult following. During the early years of the comedy group, Calagione was roommates with Marino at New York University and “The State” would practice their sketch comedy in their apartment.

Marino will co-write the show with his screenwriter/actress wife, Erica Oyama.

Above: Ken Marino and his wife, Erica Oyama, at the 17th Annual Webby Awards in New York earlier this year.

Marino’s career has boomed in recent years thanks to a string of well-received comedy series both on television and the Internet including Starz’s “Party Down,” Adult Swim’s “Children’s Hospital” and Marino’s Web series “Burning Love,” which was produced by Ben Stillers’ Red Hour Films and also aired on E!. He is slated to co-star in the final season of HBO’s “Eastbound and Down” with Danny McBride, premiering Sept. 29.

With Marino and Calagione, also 44, it’s a tight relationship that goes back nearly 25 years with Calagione calling Marino and Joe Lo Truglio (“The State,” “Reno 911!”) his best friends. They will all be together again for Lo Truglio’s wedding this fall.

Even since his days painting the brewpub and lending a hand to his buddy, Marino is no stranger to Dogfish’s home turf. He has attended the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival a couple of times over the years, including in 2007 for its 10th anniversary.

“It’s crazy,” says an excited Joe Bilancio, program director for the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival. “It’s cool for two reasons. First, for knowing Sam and Mariah as members of the community and seeing this maybe take off. And with what I know of Ken, he’s well-written, well-spoken and a lot of fun. It’s a perfect fit. Had it been anyone else doing a show based on them, I’d be excited, but not as excited.”

And while it might be odd for the elder Calagiones to see fictionalized versions of themselves on television, it will probably be a little weirder for their children since the show is currently planned to have an older brother and younger sister, just like the real-life Calagiones.

“That will be kind of funny to see those version of the kids if it ever comes to fruition,” Calagione says.

If the still-untitled project ever makes it on air, Bilancio will not only be watching, but he hopes the film festival could possibly even host a premiere party for the home-brewed television series.

About Ryan Cormier

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